Zak Doffman has covered security, surveillance and privacy on Forbes since 2018. His focus includes the latest updates from the world’s largest tech companies, staying safe on smartphones and social media, and the dangers of AI.
Unsurprisingly, with little more than a year to run before Windows 10’s unpopular end-of-life becomes reality, speculation continues to mount as to whether Microsoft will relent and extend support or remove the hardware hurdles preventing millions from upgrading. But here’s the bad news if you have such hopes— Microsoft has just issued a little-noticed, dressed-up warning for the 70% yet to upgrade.
If there was any doubt that this is an unapologetic trumpeting of the new hardware hurdle, the post’s headline alone should be confirmation enough: “Hardware-backed Windows 11 empowers Microsoft with secure-by-default baseline,” with the article reinforcing that “this new baseline for protection is one of several reasons Microsoft upgraded to Windows 11… The new hardware-backed security features create the foundation for new protections.
And then the final clincher. “The hardware-backed features of Windows 11 create additional interference against malware, ransomware, and more sophisticated hardware-based attacks… By enforcing a hardware requirement, we can now do more than ever to keep our users, products, and customers safe.” This is all another way of saying that with Windows 10 you get the opposite. Less secure from all those threats. And in the current environment, Microsoft’s warning is one you simply cannot ignore., which I commented at the time was a clear signal that hurdles were not about to be relaxed. And while the internet has been abuzz in recent weeks with articles on the workarounds that remain, one can assume that where those can also be shut down, they very likely well be at some point.
All of which highlights the real challenge for the 70% of Windows users yet to make the leap to Windows 11—replacing expensive hardware with no secondary market to push old hardware into.calculates that this hyper-scale refresh would result in “roughly a fifth of devices becom e-waste due to incompatibility with the Windows 11 OS. This equates to 240 million PCs. If these were all folded laptops, stacked one on top of another, they would make a pile 600km taller than the moon.
Windows 11 TPM 2.0 Zero Trust Trusted Platform Module Windows 11 Warning Windows 10 Warning Patch Tuesday Warning Microsoft Upgrade Warning Update Your Pc Warning
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